Developed nations find themselves stuck in economic quicksand as the status quo is maintained through debts on sovereign balance sheets. Over the last few decades of rapid economic expansion, each country bet on the continued story of globalization that narrates Tom Friedman’s dreams each night. As the developing world sees our folly, will they choose a different path? Do their informal markets signal a true alternative to centrally planned economies? Or is the System D economy a symptom of complexity collapse in a world where seven billion humans are fighting for basic necessities?

In Extraenvironmentalist #50, Robert Neuwirth tells us how supply meets demand in the informal markets employing as many as 2/3 of the world’s population. Does this System D economy provide the blueprint for an economic system that could exist in developed nations as governments breakdown from debt overhangs and peak complexity? Robert tells us about his journeys through the global trade networks of System D as he wrote the Stealth of Nations in Paraguay, Nigeria, China and more. Then, international business man of mystery Simon Black[1h 11m] joins us to talk about his travels to as many as 60 nations each year. He updates us on the breakdown of Europe and the United States while describing the economic optimism he’s seeing in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. Last of all, John Michael Greer [2h 03m] takes a break from his hiatus on The Archdruid Report to answer your questions.

6 Comments for [ Episode #50 // Markets By Other Means ]

Trevor

Hi Friends!

I just moved onto a boat and need a boatload of audio to feed my brain while out of contact with the world. I want to download all your episodes but each one is so massive and your server is quite slow (no offense) Have you considered putting your episodes up as torrents? It would significantly ease your server load and you could provide bundles off 15 or so for people like me hoping to download your archives.

My friends just discovered your podcast and may I praise you for such a worthy item. Thank you so much for providing detailed, in depth interviews the likes of which I only find once in a great while. I am a big fan and once I am able, I will donate to this podcast! Keep up the great work. Also for a future guest, check out black agenda report, I think you’ll find the content and host very knowledgeable. Again keep up the great work!

I’m appalled at some of Mr. Black’s statements; he is obviously what some would call a “globalist” (trans-nationalist). I’d like to see him march into the refugee camps of the Gaza and tell those people that they just need to get up and get out there to some other country where they can invest in any of those great “opportunities” he’s so enthralled with. Or how about the ghetto dwellers in any large urban center of the United States, or the favelas of Central and South America. Tell them they just need to “quit complaining” and to “have the courage to make better decisions that will improve their own lives”. So f___ing easy for him to say.

No doubt the “anti-colonialists” would see him very much as a modern neo-colonialist: jet-setting around the globe attending to his “investments”. He is one of the moneyed elites that’s personally profiting from the what is most likely the same old resource extraction through corporate exploitation of someone else’s native lands. How many of his “investments” and the organic farms he boasted about exist because the government of that nation drove the peasants off their ancestral land to open it up to “modern agriculture” by transnational corporations? This is happening on a massive scale all over Africa — exactly where Mr. Black declares there are such great “opportunities” for investment! Go tell those displaced peoples that they just need to “have the courage to make better decisions”.

Holy Shit! This guy is a piece of work! I could just puke.

Nearly everything he talked about obviated him as being out-of-touch with those of us (most of us on the planet) who are permanently and hopelessly planted on the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladders of the world. Only people who already have money or connections have the option to simply up and bop off to a different country to explore better “opportunities”. Especially those of us who are ignorant, illiterate, malnourished and destitute. There may be occasional exceptions to this — but only exceptions, not the rule for most.

He advocates stashing money and gold in foreign vaults(!!!) How many of us have enough money to meet our basic needs, let alone enough to be hiding it in off-shore accounts? He tells about the cash confiscation taking place in some nations — how long before some desperate government raids his gold vaults?

I could go on for some time with more outrage to much of what he said, but will end with this: from what I could gather from this interview, it appears that Mr. Black is a Player in the modern abusive exploitive industrial economic juggernaut that is oppressing and destroying local native cultures and societies (as well as the environment) in the relentless quest for “return on investment” where the elites (like himself) get rich from others’ labor and resources while they sip wine and feast on delicacies behind the walls of their gated compounds.

It might serve him right to have his gold confiscated by another of his kind that dwells on a higher link of the economic food chain.

I enjoyed this episode even though I didn’t agree with everything that the guests said. I did take note that the hosts mentioned that they don’t always totally agree with their guests either, but choose to be open-minded and cover topics from different angles.
I didn’t like hearing admiration for “rags to riches” stories though, I must admit. With American citizens needing a major overhaul regarding needs and wants, I suggest admiring “rags to sufficiency” type stories, or “excess to sufficiency” journeys.
I did learn a bit from this episode though. Thanks!

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